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Dear Parents,
This Sunday as we celebrate Father's Day we thank all the fathers in the world who have accepted the responsibilities of being a parent. We remember the many sacrifices fathers make for their children and families, and the ways – both big and small – they lift children to achieve dreams thought beyond reach. To all our dads we ask God to bless you with humility and wisdom in the face of parenting and to help you to always parent with patience, unconditional love and understanding.
Sit back in front of your device and take a couple of minutes to enjoy this salute to fathers https://christianstt.com/prayer-happy-fathers-day-a-salute-to-fathers/
Strength of a Mountain
The warmth of a summer sun,
The calm of a quiet sea,
The generous soul of nature,
The comforting arm of night,
The wisdom of the ages,
The power of the eagle's flight,
The joy of a morning in spring,
The faith of a mustard seed,
The patience of eternity,
The depth of a family need,
Then God combined these qualities,
When there was nothing more to add,
He knew His masterpiece was complete,
And so, He called it ... Dad Author Unknown
Book Week and Grandparents Day
The power of reading certainly took over at St Joseph’s last week. Over the course of Book Week and with the menu of daily activities there was something that appealed to all our students. The library was magnificently decorated and early in the week it became a brilliant bookshop for a couple of days. It was so inspiring and reassuring to see so many children enjoying perusing the tables of books, handling them, making decisions and choices about what they would buy and generally just talking animatedly about the books. A much loved and rowdy event was the Children’s Books Quiz between the two staff teams, The Supremes and The Bookworms. Thankfully, and proudly, I can say that the Supremes were the overall winners. There was certainly a great deal of support for both teams which could no doubt be heard down as far as Bar Beach. On Thursday, Jess Collins came to speak to the children. Jess is the young Newcastle girl who, through a freak surfing accident, became a paraplegic when her spinal cord was squashed and left her without feeling or movement below the shoulders. The questions the children asked were insightful and they were all engaged in what Jess had to say. Accompanying Jess was Boyd Conrick, who noticed there was very little engaging literature for children on beach safety, so decided to take action and has created a children’s book series, “At the Beach with Lizzie and Luke” (see http://lizzieandluke.com/ ). The books have a short story that engages children in an entertaining manner but also educates them about beach safety.
The culmination of the week was our Grandparents Day and Book Week Parade. What an amazing morning! There was a magnificent turnout of parents and grandparents and it was wonderful to see the looks of joy and delight on the adults faces as the children paraded around in their character costumes. And thank you to all those who came along and helped make this day a wonderful one for our children. We are aware that there were a number of grandparents that travelled great distances for this. And we hope you weren’t disappointed. The reading throughout the playground was a fabulous sight to see and those children whose families were unable to make it to the morning very quickly were included with their friends' families. Thank you to all the parents who helped organise and/or create the diverse range of costumes that we saw. They were so colourful, imaginative and diverse.
My personal highlights of the week were the expressions of gratitude from the children for the gift of a book that was presented to each class at the launch of the week, shopping at the bookshop (dragging myself away from this was incredibly difficult, as some of the children noticed!) and to see the different generations enjoying each other’s company and reading together. I look forward to Book Week 2020.
Debating
What an honour it was to go along to our Regional Debating Competition earlier this week and witness the amazing group of persuasive talkers we have in Year 6. Our team debated against St James Kotara South and even though they did not win their debate they are winners in our eyes. The confidence with which they spoke, the range of arguments and rebuttals they offered and their ever widening range of vocabulary was magnificent. Congratulations! Thank you to Miss Holly Gralton who accompanied the children on the day.
Save the Dates
We ask that you put into your diaries the following dates:
- Working Bee, BBQ & Barefoot Bowls day-Sunday 27th October
- High Tea @ Rydges Saturday 19th October 1pm-4pm
Further information will come your way shortly.
Important Dates
2 September | Kindergarten Blackbutt Excursion | |
3 September | Netball Gala Day | National Park |
5 September | ICAS - Science | |
5 September | Year 6 Sports Day | St Pius X Adamstown |
10 September | ICAS - Writing | |
11 September | Year 5 Woo V Spencer | Newcastle University |
12 September | ICAS - Spelling | |
13 September | St Joseph's Fundraising Ball | Surfhouse Merewether |
Curriculum Corner - Renata Powell
Book Week
Book Week was a wonderful success here at St Joseph’s last week. As Karen has mentioned, it was fabulous to see the whole community engaged with reading! With all the amazing new books purchased at the Book Fair, I thought it could be timely to share some reflections from author, Mem Fox. These ‘commandments’ are an excellent guide to reading together as a family.
Ten Read-Aloud Commandments By Mem Fox
- Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud. From birth!
- Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. Or the same story a thousand times!
- Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.
- Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners.
- Read the stories that your child loves, over and over and over again. Always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations and volume and speed, on each page, each time.
- Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games.
- Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children and make sure the books are really short.
- Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.
- Never get stressed around books.
- Please read aloud every day because you just adore being with your child.
Thank you again to everyone who was involved in coordinating the fabulous celebrations over the week!
2019 NAPLAN Results
In the media, you may have heard some commentary around 2019 NAPLAN results. At school, we have not received any results yet. On the National Assessment Program website (NAP), it states that “NAPLAN results will be provided to schools from mid-August to mid-September, depending on your state or territory test administration authority.
The same report format is used for every student in Australia. The school will notify you when the reports are being sent home. If your child sits the tests and you do not receive a report, you should contact the school. Individual student results are strictly confidential.”
Once we receive results at school, we will send them home. Other the coming months, as a staff we will spend time analysing our school results. NAPLAN results assist
- teachers to better identify students who need greater challenges or extra support
- schools to identify strengths and areas of need in teaching programs
- schools to set goals in literacy and numeracy
- school systems to review programs and support offered to schools
- the community to see average school results on the My School website
National Child Protection Week
Next week is National Child Protection Week, coordinated by the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (NAPCAN). The aim of the week is to engage members of the community in supporting families and protecting children. We can help to support and safeguard young people by being active listeners when children communicate with us, ensuring they feel heard and respected. NAPCAN provides the following information on listening to children.
Why listening to children is so important:
Making a point of listening to children is one of the most important things we can do. It shows children we really care and respect that they are worth listening to. Being listened to also helps children to practice putting ideas into words, explore their feelings and develop self-confidence. When we listen to children, we learn more about how the child thinks and feels, and what they need.
Finding a time and place for talk:
Children are more likely to talk openly when they are doing something with you, for example:
- Going shopping together
- Walking the dog
- Sitting at a table and sharing a meal
- Watching a TV program together
- Doing a puzzle or making something together
How to be a good audience:
- Pay attention to what the child is saying, rather than doing or thinking about something else.
- Use non-verbals that indicate that you are actively listening by nodding, smiling or mirroring the feelings in your child’s story.
- Ask general questions to help the child develop their own ideas and show your interest, eg. “What happened then?” or “What did you think about that?”
Encouraging children to talk:
- Ask about the best thing that happened in the child’s day.
- Remember what has been going on for the child so that you can check in with suitable questions.
- Ask about the child’s friends.
- Ask about the child’s opinions and views on things, how they would solve problems. BUT respect their answers!
- If the child does not respond to a question avoid pushing, instead change the topic.
- Remember that children live much more in the moment than adults. If they don’t want to talk about what happened at school, it may be because it’s not important anymore.
Children may clam up and stop talking openly when…
- They are interrupted
- The adult listener appears bored or busy doing something else
- The adult takes over the conversation
- Their pronunciation or grammar mistakes are criticised
- They feel they are being questioned
- They feel disapproval
Talking about worries:
Sometimes children need to talk about worries, but don’t know how to start. Recognise their feelings and gently prompt them. If you really don’t have the time just then, make it clear that you will listen later on – and do! Find a quiet place where you can give your undivided attention. To help children talk about their feelings, find out what they would like to happen before taking over with adult solutions. Consider compromising to ensure the child feels heard and respected. If the problem is serious and you need to act, try to stay calm. Strong adult emotions can scare children into silence.
For more information and support:
NAPCAN – www.napcan.org.au
Online support for all members of the community in safeguarding children and young people.
Reach Out – https://au.reachout.com
Online support for parents, teachers and young people about wellbeing and mental health.
Celebrating our Faith - Stephanie Colvin
Prayer
Father’s Day
We celebrate Father’s Day this coming weekend with the Father’s Day Breakfast and Liturgy this morning. Thank you to all the staff who helped prepare breakfast and the P&F for their fundraising efforts. It was wonderful to see so many Dads and Grandads join us for the morning. A special thank you also goes to Jamie Boswell for his candid sharing about what it means to be a Dad.
We wish all the dads, grandads and father figures in our community a very Happy Father’s Day on Sunday. The P&F raised over $1700 from the sale of raffle tickets. Congratulations to our winners, Swanson family, Burgess family and the Heaney family.
Thank you to Tony Reville & Robinson Property for their continued support and generous donations to the Father’s Day raffle. They have supported this fundraiser for many years now and Matthew Kent & Rydges Newcastle for their generous donation
The Community Kitchen
Catholic Care is partnering with the City Pastoral Region to establish a Community Kitchen. They will be providing hot, nutritious meals to the vulnerable people in our local community.
The Community Kitchen will run at the Benedict's Parish Regional Centre here in The Junction (25 Farquhar Street). This is a way of students and families reaching out to those in need and being actively involved in parish/school life.
If you are interested in volunteering or would like to learn more about this initiative, please contact: RSwan@catholiccare.org.au for further information.
Year 6 Religious Literacy Test
In Week 10 this term, children from Year 6 will participate in the Year 6 Religious Literacy Test. The assessment of Catholic Religious Literacy takes place annually across all schools in the Maitland-Newcastle Diocese. This year the students will be completing the new test that has been devised by the Religous Education & Spirituality team from the Catholic School’s Office. This means, the questions have been specifically designed around the RE curriculum taught here in the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle. It focuses on students’ knowledge and understanding of key concepts that are addressed in the Religious Education curriculum, the achievement of the outcomes set out in the Diocesan Religion Education syllabus, and the ability of students to communicate this knowledge and understanding about the Catholic tradition. The data produced from the various testing instruments is designed to give Religious Education teachers meaningful feedback about the students’ learning and to assist in developing effective Religious Education lessons.
Annual Special Needs Mass
Term 3 Class Mass Timetable
Parents and family are warmly invited to join Parish Mass each Friday at 10:15am. The timetable below indicates when each grade will attend Parish Mass this term.
Date | Class |
6 September | Year 3 attending Mass |
13 September | Year 2 attending Mass |
20 September | Year 1 attending Mass |
27 September | Kindergarten attending Mass |
________________________________________________________
Newcastle Inner City Catholic Community - Weekend Mass times
Sacred Heart Cathedral – Vigil Saturday 5:30pm, Sunday 9:30am and 5:00pm
St Joseph’s, The Junction – Sunday 9:00am
Immaculate Heart of Mary, Tighes Hill – Sunday 8:00am
St Mary’s, Newcastle – Sunday 7:30am
_________________________________________________________
Girls Soccer Gala Day
A beautiful day dawned on the 15 August for our annual Girls’ Soccer Gala Day. St Joseph’s was proud to send along two junior and two senior girls teams to represent our school. All of the teams played enthusiastically with one of our junior teams being undefeated in all of their games and a senior team winning the final against St Theresa’s New Lambton. A huge thanks to our coaches on the day, Leah Temple, Ainslie Wildshut, Joel Griffiths, Robert Merlo and Stephen O’Donahue who supported the girls and gave valuable advice. Well done girls on your great sportsmanship and behaviour. It was a memorable event!
Upcoming Dates
Netball Gala Day: Tuesday 3rd September
NSW/PSSA Boys Softball: 10th-12th September
Polding Athletics: Friday 16th October
St Joseph’s Sports Committee
LIBRARY NEWS
Premier’s Reading Challenge for 2019 ends on FRIDAY, 30th August!!!
Congratulations to all these people who have answered the challenge: Bonnie Mckell, Francesca Smith, Zara Bailey, Otis Charnock, Orla McGready, Jack Robertshaw, Finlay Smart, Rosa Leonard, Patrick Ryba, Coco Wasely, Darcy Williams, Miller Charnock, Aurelia Francis, Joseph Leis, Maverick Ford, Josephine Ryba, Bronte Bowker, Eleanor Phillips, Molly Boyle, Charlotte Dunleavy, Lucy Emmett, Elijah Leonard, Liam Clydesdale, Hannah Francis and Oliver Turkovic.
Great work everyone!
Happy Reading
‘Just One More’
"Grandma leads the adventure when it's raining outside and the grand kids are stuck indoors for the day.
With no Ipad, no tablet and a broken telly (thanks to Grandad) the group are forced to set out on adventures right from the middle of Grandma's living room!
The grandchildren explore Roald Dahl's 'The Twits', 'Mary Poppins' by P.L. Travers and even the history of the moon landing."
This is a school production you don't want to miss! Tickets ON SALE NOW!
For more information click on the link below
School Fees
School Fees are now due and payable. For enquiries regarding outstanding accounts please contact the office.
School Photos
The children have now received their photo order forms. Please return these on the day of the photos with your child. Sibling order forms are available for collection from the office.
St Joseph's Primary School Fundraising Ball